About

Note: This is the About Page for the SmallBusiness.com WIKI. For the About Page related to SmallBusiness.com, visit: About SmallBusiness.com.

The SmallBusiness.com WIKI is a type of website where users can create and edit pages. The goal of the WIKI is to be the web's largest open-source collection of shared knowledge for and by small business owners and managers. The SmallBusiness.com WIKI is one of a collection of helpful resources created and hosted by SmallBusiness.com.

Disclaimer regarding user-contributed content

It is important for users of SmallBusiness.com WIKI to understand that nearly all content on the SmallBusiness.com WIKI can be edited by users. Therefore, it is important to read the general disclaimer page on the site to understand how to use the content found on the site.

Terms of Use

The portion of SmallBusiness.com that is clearly marked, "SmallBusiness.com WIKI" is an open source resource that grants re-use rights of its content under the Creative Commons Share-and-share alike license. Before contributing content to SmallBusiness.com, it is important to understand its Terms of Use. While you can re-use the content from SmallBusiness.com, you must follow specific guidelines related to crediting SmallBusiness.com. You must also grant the same re-use license for any content re-posted from SmallBusiness.com onto your website. Therefore, it is is important to read the SmallBusiness:Terms of Use page to understand how to use its content.

Who we are and how to contact us

Other than Rex Hammock, there are no authority figures hovering over users of the SmallBusiness.com WIKI. While this site is owned and operated by the company, Hammock, Inc., it is designed to be a participatory project in which a community of users (you) share with one another the knowledge needed to start and operate a small business.

If you want to contact Rex, send an e-mail to [email protected] and put "SmallBusiness.com WIKI question" somewhere in the subject line.

Where does someone find help for using (especially, editing) the SmallBusiness.com WIKI?

What is the SmallBusiness.com WIKI?

(This refers to the SmallBusiness.com WIKI. For an explanation of the entire site, SmallBusiness.com, See: About SmallBusiness.com.)

The SmallBusiness.com WIKI is a user-created resource filled with resources to help small business owners and managers (today, primarily in the U.S.) obtain the information they need to make decisions related to the operation of their companies.

By wiki, we mean it is the type of website that is encyclopedic in nature and that can be edited by users who are registered and logged in. SmallBusiness.com WIKI is intended to be a collaborative effort.

Why do people share content on the SmallBusiness.com WIKI?

This is one of those questions I used to receive before we launched the first version of SmallBusiness.com in 2000. After we had a thousand or so folks sharing thousands of articles (we called them "advice"), the question died down, however, I'm getting it again. Now, it's more like, "If someone has a weblog, why should they put information on SmallBusiness.com?" Well, for one thing, SmallBusiness.com is not a blogging platform and anyone who is a blogger should see quickly that it's not a competition for what they do. Rather, it's a means for them to gain some visibility for their weblog. For example, everyone who shares information on the SmallBusiness.com WIKI can create a user page on which they can link to their weblog. Beyond that incentive, I have learned there exists a tremendous community of individuals who know a lot about a particular topic and are happy to share it because they want others to succeed. Malcolm Gladwell in his book, The Tipping Point, describes a group of people called "mavens" who feel a calling to share what they know about a topic. I've learned that such mavens are the real power of a site like the SmallBusiness.com WIKI.

Why is the SmallBusiness.com WIKI so U.S. focused?

I'm sorry. I had to start somewhere, so I started with the place I live. I know from experience that much about running a small business is universal. However, laws and customs and certain practices are very country-by-country and culture-specific. Our licensing permit allows for anyone to use the content found on the SmallBusiness.com WIKI for adaptation for another country-specific site. As our volunteer base grows, we'll support those efforts more directly.